The Power and Presence of God

How quickly we humans forget the power and presence of our God. 

It happens to me more often than I care to admit. I’m guessing that might be true for you, too. But you know what? We’re in good company!

I’ve been reading through Exodus in my morning Bible times, and after God brings the Israelites out of Egypt and across the miraculously dry Red Sea, we see in Exodus 14:31:

“Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.”

Less than 2 months later, when water was scarce and food nowhere to be found, Exodus 16:2 says,

“And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.”

It didn’t take long for the people to forget that God was still with them and that He still had the power to save them!

If you’ll track with me to another part of the Bible for a minute, this whole episode with Moses and the Israelites reminds me of Elijah in 1 Kings 19. 

He had just defeated the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel after God miraculously showed His power by sending fire from heaven. The people of Israel were overcome with awe and shouted “The LORD, he is God! The LORD, he is God” (1 Kings 18:39). 

Mission accomplished! Elijah wanted the people to know who their great and powerful God was. And they did! 

But then, right on the heels of that spectacular victory, Elijah heard that Jezebel had put a death-threat on his head. So what did he do? Stood firm in faith?

Nope. He fled in fear, despairing of life itself. 

Now why did he do that? Why did he flee? He was a great man of faith and had seen firsthand the Lord’s miraculous provision!

He fled because Elijah really was a “man with a nature like ours” as it says in James 5:17.

And our nature is to fatigue, to fret, to flee, and to forget. 

We forget His never-ending presence; His promise to be our “very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). When the heat turns up and the enemy comes near, we see the trials in front of us and all too often we let them consume us in fear and despair. 

And yet, God is patient. 

For the Israelites, He provided bread from heaven (Exodus 16).
For Elijah, He provided bread from an angel (1 Kings 19).

For us, He provides fresh daily mercies from the Bread of Life Himself; Jesus, our Savior.

Let’s remember, friends: our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He was with the Israelites. He was with Elijah. And He’s with us today. 

And when we can’t remember on our own, let’s remind each other: God is bigger than we know, stronger than we can imagine, and more faithful than the sunrise every morning. 

His love is deeper than the deepest ocean and will never run dry. He will never tire of listening to us, providing for us, or tending to us. He proved that when He sent Jesus to die for us.

Do you have any burdens today? I do. Let’s take them to our Father. 

Let’s cast all our cares on Him every day and trust that He will never ever fail to take them.

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:14–21

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 

‘The LORD is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him.’” Lamentations 3:22